All the King's Men

Review: Not worth your vote.

All the King's Men, scripted and directed by Oscar winner Steven Zaillian, has a lot to live up to: it is based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was previously filmed in 1949 and won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Zaillian has reportedly said he's never seen the original film, which is a shame considering his turgid retelling could have learned much from it.

A roman ¿ clef based on the life of Louisiana politician Huey Long, All the King's Men follows backwoods politician Willie Stark (an over-the-top but still Oscar-worthy Sean Penn) from being a man of the people who railed against corruption to a power-thirsty governor. Stark loses his soul and, like Long, he's destined for tragedy. Stark's rise and fall is seen through the eyes of reporter-turned-crony Jack Burden (Jude Law).

Whereas the 1949 film relegated Jack to a secondary role, Zaillian's version gives him the most screen time. Willie is the catalyst for Jack's moral degeneration. He begins as an accomplished reporter but soon falls under the spell of then-honest pol Stark, the county treasurer in Mason City, who rages against the political machine. When Willie's star rises, Jack finds his wagon has become inextricably hitched to it.

Jack believes in Willie and therein lies the tragedy for both characters: Their relationship was born from noble ideals, but power -- being the corrupting force that it is -- soon turns both men into twisted versions of themselves. (Or perhaps they were really that way to begin with.) When Jack becomes one of Willie's fixers, his shady efforts force him to cross his father figure and family friend, Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins).

Jack's backstory also involves siblings Adam and Anne Stanton (Mark Ruffalo and Kate Winslet, respectively), whose late father was once the state's most beloved governor. They were best friends with Jack growing up until a youthful romance between Anne and Jack came between them. Jack crosses paths with the Stantons again while doing Wille's dirty work, which has fateful repercussions for all involved.

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The original film was more of a cautionary tale about ambition and the downside of politics. Since Zaillian's adaptation is more concerned with Jack than Willie, it is more about the loss of idealism and the price one pays for their corruption. Unfortunately, Jack Burden just isn't a very compelling protagonist onscreen.

Law's monotone delivery of flowery but forgettable narration sounds like a dull babbling brook throughout the entire film. While Law and Penn have chemistry together, All the King's Men grinds to a halt whenever Penn isn't onscreen. Penn certainly chews the scenery, and he has far too many Big Speeches, but he at least gives the film a much needed pulse.

The rest of the cast is wasted and almost all of them struggle with their required Southern accents. Hopkins, for instance, doesn't even try to do one but then again, he doesn't appear to be trying to do anything here. This is one of the most shockingly phoned-in supporting turns by an Oscar winner in recent memory.

Kate Winslet is as miscast here as Hilary Swank was in The Black Dahlia, but the story doesn't give her much to do except be the object of Jack's broken dreams. She is also part of a subplot later in the film that never adequately explains why she allowed herself to get involved with it to begin with.

Mark Ruffalo appears lost and bored; he literally wanders in and out of scenes. James Gandolfini should have made for a fine Tiny Duffy, Willie's puppetmaster-turned-crony, but he seems out of place in this setting and his Southern accent often sounds more like South Jersey. Also wasted is Patricia Clarkson as Sadie Burke, Willie's paramour and operative; Mercedes McCambridge had far more to do in the original film. Frederic Forrest has a thankless cameo as Willie's dad, while Jackie Earle Hayley was snatched from obscurity to play Willie's oafish thug Sugar Boy.

The biggest problem with the flat and uninvolving All the King's Men is that you simply don't care about any of the characters. You don't feel anything for Jack since he's a cipher; ditto Anne and Adam. You also don't ever (even begrudgingly) like Willie so you're not invested in his rise and fall. Only Penn's sheer onscreen power makes you want to see what will happen next. The ideas in All the King's Men may be compelling but it takes far more interesting characters than these to make them work.